inquiry

Recently my year 7 class were issued with an inquiry tasks asking them to select various pathways and answer various inquiry questions, many of which they themselves had created, relating to their current Inquiry topic of Ancient History with a focus on Ancient Rome and Ancient China.

Immediately after the task had been covered, discussed and picked apart, I set the students off to begin creating their presentations. Depending on what we are doing in class I often place a very heavy focus on ‘student voice, student choice’ (thanks @MichelleMeracis for allowing me to ‘borrow’ your phrase) as well as foster a ‘Gradual Release of Responsibility’ towards how work is presented. This essentially means that student can choose to create their work via just about any means they wish as long as they are meeting their success criteria and learning outcomes for that lesson.

After 15 mins or so I began conferencing with the students around the room what it is they had chosen to do and how they were going to go about presenting their work. The task itself involves also having students present their findings to the rest of the year seven cohort in an ‘exhibition’ style setting.

It became quickly apparent that the creativity I was hoping for was not entirely being embraced! A class conversation was quickly organised and a rushed ‘poll’ on NOT what each of the students were doing but HOW they were doing it. Their responses were mixed with a around half selecting to ditch their technology altogether. However, those who were iPad bound were all looking to create in the same select few app’s.

So being the teacher that I am I decided to show just a few select ways that were quick, pain free and simple to take what was a very ordinary task and ‘jazz’ it up a little!

Below I have completed the same basic task; under the ‘History Pathways‘ component, and the dot point titled ‘What are your thoughts/opinions on slavery?’. To answer this I have come up with three pretty standard opinions and attempted to represent these in 15 different ways using my iPad Mini. Some are extremely basic, others a little more complicated. Some tasks took a little longer to complete while others were completed in under 3 minutes.

App: Quick Voice Pro (embedded in to an iMovie and exported from an .MP3 to a .Mov)

Cost: $3.79

Time: 10 minutes

So there you have it… I do actually have ideas for another several however we’ll leave it at that! If you, the readers, have any ideas, I have embedded the Google Doc below so you can add your own ideas, apps, etc…

Below I have attached several links which had been shared amongst the attendees of the Ulearn10 Conference last week.

Hopefully you find them extremely useful. I know i have!

http://manorlakesvicipadtrial.global2.vic.edu.au/ – Everything happening in in the world of iPads @ MLC. Here you will find student comments, app recommendations, photos and soon to be added examples of student work as well as a host of other exciting things!

http://gamesined.wikispaces.com/ – This Wiki has been constructed by Adrian Camm, an esteemed Educator who is passionate about utilising the powers that games can have amongst our digital learners in education. If you are thinking of integrating Games Based Learning in to your classroom, this is the site for you!

http://globalmythchallenge.wikispaces.com/ – The Global Myth Chalenge. A great collaborative site in which students from various cultures can share what myths and legends are native to specific places around the globe! An excellent inquiry bask challenge for your students!

http://www.classroomchronicles.net/ – An excellent Blog create by Henrietta Miller, a fantastic teacher from Sydney. Via her Blog you will learn what it is that Henrietta has to share and offer, which is always of extreme benefit to teachers and students.